Catholic Teens - January 18, 2006

Hey All--
I helped lead a retreat this past weekend just north of LaCrosse. Good
group of kids--some beautiful land around the camp as well. The students
that I worked with had lots of good questions, so I'll be answering those in
this column. As always, feel free to send in yours as well!

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Question O' the Week:
"What does the devil look like?"
Lots of questions regarding the devil and evil and exorcisms. I suppose the
movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" has something to do with that. I'm
planning on seeing that movie soon.
The devil is pure spirit, so technically, he doesn't look like anything. He
is simply an angel who chose to rebel against God. (Recall St. Michael
leading God's angels against the angels who chose to follow God.) St.
Michael won that battle (big surprise!) and the devil was cast out of the
heavens.
The devil as a spirit can take on physical forms as he desires. And because
the devil seeks to get people to follow him, he often appears as something
beautiful or attractive. If people saw the devil for how evil and ugly he
truly was, no one would follow him. So he tricks people. Remember the
Garden of Eden...the devil tricked Adam and Eve into eating of the
fruit...which was very attractive.
So the devil makes evil things look good and thereby tempts people.

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Announcements:
The next Youth Group: Generation JPII is scheduled for
Sunday, January 29th at 200PM. We will join hundreds of people from
around Portage County in a Walk for Life, to pray and demonstrate that
unborn babies have rights too. And for healing for all those who have been
victimized or hurt by abortion.
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may
live as you wish." --Mother Teresa